State of New Hampshire Archives: on Budget & Economy

Bernie Sanders: The greed of the billionaire class is destroying our economy

I don't have a super PAC. I don't want campaign contributions from corporate America.

And let me be clear: While there are some great corporations creating jobs and trying to do the right thing, in my view--and I say this very seriously--the greed of the billionaire class, the greed of Wall Street is destroying this economy and is destroying the lives of millions of Americans. We need an economy that works for the middle class, not just a handful of billionaires, and I will fight and lead to make that happen.

Chris Sununu: Washington doesn't understand the concept of a budget

SUNUNU: It's not about the measures and the policies. More programs sound good, but at the end of the day they have to be paid for and they have to be sustainable, because these aren't programs that we're just going to do for a couple of years. This is one-time money, most of it, but it now has to get built into a budget. Washington doesn't seem to understand the concept of a budget.

Derek Dextraze: Market-led recovery better than stimulus

A: Strongly Oppose

Hillary Clinton: Democrats would have paid off national debt in 2000s

Jeanne Shaheen: Lack of oversight caused financial crisis; regulation needed

Jeanne Shaheen countered that "the lack of oversight and the lack of accountability that George Bush and his allies like John Sununu in the Senate supported have really brought us to where we are today." She pushed for tighter regulations and liquidity-disclosure requirements as well as a consolidated oversight system.

Sununu parried back aggressively, telling how he had long sought to beef up regulation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the ailing public-private mortgage finance companies seized by the government this month. "That's an issue where I've led the effort not just in the past year, but going back five years," Sununu said. He also said taxpayers should be kept off the hook for Wall Street's failures.

Jeanne Shaheen: Bush-Sununu self-regulation policy led to financial meltdown

"Where has John Sununu been on those issues? He's been in Washington for 12 years--5 years on the Banking Committee," she said. "He's been missing in action when it came to cracking down on those practices that led us to the crisis that we're in today." In response, Sununu's campaign maintained Shaheen is the "last person N.H. needs in an economic crisis" because her "first inclination" is to raise taxes. Shaheen seems to anticipate the tax-and-spend criticism. She said she balanced three budgets when she was governor and when revenues were lagging, she cut spending.

Sununu has been promoting three priorities: protecting taxpayers' interests, implementing strong oversight of regulatory markets and promoting policies that encourage long-term growth.

John Lynch: I erased a major budget deficit without new taxes

John Sununu: Sought more financial regulation; keep taxpayers off hook

Jeanne Shaheen countered that "the lack of oversight and the lack of accountability that George Bush and his allies like John Sununu in the Senate supported have really brought us to where we are today." She pushed for tighter regulations and liquidity-disclosure requirements as well as a consolidated oversight system.

Sununu parried back aggressively, telling how he had long sought to beef up regulation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the ailing public-private mortgage finance companies seized by the government this month. "That's an issue where I've led the effort not just in the past year, but going back five years," Sununu said. He also said taxpayers should be kept off the hook for Wall Street's failures.

John Sununu: Difficult to say that fundamentals of our economy are strong

But the parallels aren't exact. For one, Sununu declined to agree with a McCain line that generated flack earlier this week, proclaiming that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong." Asked during the conference call, Sununu replied: "I think it's very difficult to make a statement about the fundamentals," he said, citing the pace of change.

To make their case against Sununu, Democrats point to Sununu's vote as a congressman for the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. That bill, co-sponsored by Gramm, removed New Deal-era restrictions on mergers between financial institutions. Democrats have circulated a news story saying the law "helped pave the way for AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans."

John Sununu: Raising taxes is last thing needed during financial meltdown

"Where has John Sununu been on those issues? He's been in Washington for 12 years--5 years on the Banking Committee," she said. "He's been missing in action when it came to cracking down on those practices that led us to the crisis that we're in today." In response, Sununu's campaign maintained Shaheen is the "last person N.H. needs in an economic crisis" because her "first inclination" is to raise taxes. Shaheen seems to anticipate the tax-and-spend criticism. She said she balanced three budgets when she was governor and when revenues were lagging, she cut spending.

Sununu has been promoting three priorities: protecting taxpayers' interests, implementing strong oversight of regulatory markets and promoting policies that encourage long-term growth.

Jon Lavoie: Stimulus is taking tax money and redistributing it

A: No. Stimulus is taking tax money and redistributing it. People will spend their own money if they get to keep more of it. Real jobs will result. Real markets induce progression and advancements.

Karen Testerman: Not necessarily a revenue problem but a spending problem

Maggie Hassan: Balanced budget with no income tax nor sales tax

But it is also a budget that recognizes that we cannot address all of our challenges all at once in these uncertain economic times. We must still make difficult choices to protect our priorities while living within our means.

In preparing this budget, we cut agency budget requests by more than $500 million, keeping general fund spending 7% below fiscal year 2008 for fiscal year 2014.

Martin O`Malley: Fix is neither socialism nor crony capitalism

CLINTON: I want to be the president for the striving AND the successful. But I want to make sure the wealthy pay their fair share,

SANDERS: The greed of Wall Street is destroying this economy. We have got to break the large financial institutions up.

O'MALLEY: I look at our economy as an ecosystem. And the fact of the matter is that the more fully people participate, the more our workers earn, the more they will spend, the more our economy will grow. And most heads of businesses--large, medium and small--understand that. But there is a better way forward than either of those offered by my two opponents here on this stage. We're not going to fix what ails our economy, we're not going to make wages go up for everyone by either trying to replace American capitalism with socialism, nor will we fix it by submitting to sort of Wall Street-directed crony capitalism.

Paul Hodes: Stimulus bill was needed to stabilize economic free fall

Hodes defended the spending and argued the stimulus funds created needed jobs for teachers, fire fighters and police officers. "It was certainly necessary to stabilize our economy that was in absolute free fall," said Hodes. "At the time the recovery act was passed we'd lost almost 4 million jobs, the financial markets were locked, the economy was in a free fall."

Paul Hodes: $800B stimulus was an emergency investment

Ayotte said the stimulus only created "temporary or government" jobs and more taxpayer-paid spending hurt the economy as national unemployment increased by 2.5 million jobs. "It was a big government program, but it didn't allow the growth in the private sector," Ayotte said.

During the four years Hodes was in Congress, Ayotte said the federal deficit went up 525%, the debt increased $5 trillion to $13 trillion and Hodes voted for 9,000 earmarks last year. "Congressman Hodes is wanting to portray himself as a fiscal conservative," Ayotte said.

In this campaign, both candidates call for a ban on earmarks. Ayotte said Hodes had an election year conversion on earmarks. Hodes noted Ayotte earlier in this campaign had defended earmarks as long as they were transparent until after Hodes had endorsed the ban.

Cinde Warmington: Approved additional $40M to expand rural broadband

Cinde Warmington: First budget would address child care, housing affordability